


A World of Difference

by ShusalixSmiles



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Day 1: Sun/Moon, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M, McGenji Week 2018, mcgenji banter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-10
Updated: 2018-08-10
Packaged: 2019-06-25 12:03:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15640371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShusalixSmiles/pseuds/ShusalixSmiles
Summary: “McCree, first of all, you’ve literally seen him deflect bullets.” Reyes is deadpan.“Not my bullet,” he grumbles under his breath.There's just something about someone who knows how to push all your buttons that Jesse loves to hate.





	A World of Difference

**Author's Note:**

> Day 1 at the end of McGenji week gahyuk I just love McGenji and I miss writing them so I'm jumping on the boat late big sorry  
> Sun/Moon yayyyyy I've never written enemy -> lovers McGenji so it was hella fun! And I'm psyched to maybe do the other days idk I'm bad at following through anything.  
> ANYWAY thanks for even bother to clicking on this piece of crappo I hope you enjoy!

“Out of all the degenerates in the world, we manage to pull the two who hate each other’s guts,” Reyes sighs as he shuts the medical bay door. Genji doesn’t make a noise – not counting the intermittent buzz coming from his crack in his visor –  and Jesse grunts under his breath. His bruised ribs complain at the motion, and Angela purses her lips as she wipes the blood from his nose and hands him a bio-orb.  When she’s happy - ‘happy’ that his injuries are mostly seen to, she moves onto Genji. She ignores the broken visor and moves straight to the sparking forearm, muttering something about how “bio-machinery doesn’t grow on trees”.  
  
“I knew you’d be more trouble than you’re worth.” Reyes’ forehead crinkles up as he surveys the damage. There’s nothing severe, but that’s probably thanks to Reinhardt pulling them apart before it could escalate.  

“S’not like I’m tryna start shit –” Jesse begins, his voice nasally, but Reyes cuts him off with a swift hand motion. 

“You sure as hell ain’t trying to avoid it, either. This is what, fight number five? Six?” 

“Eight,” Angela says helpfully as she dislocates Genji’s shoulder - entirely. She looks apologetic as he visibly winces, and Jesse feels a tiny bit of guilt in his stomach. Genji turns his red eyes back to the wall. 

“Over what?” Reyes breathes incredulously as he looks over the records. “Over _whose faster_?”

 “I didn’t - “ 

“McCree, first of all, you’ve literally seen him deflect bullets.” Reyes is deadpan. 

“Not my bullet,” he grumbles under his breath. “Said my gun was _outdated_ …!” 

“How about we try?” Genji says matter-of-factly. Angela silences him with a look. 

“ _Second of all_ …You’re on the same team. As long as you’re both faster than whoever’s trying to kill you, I couldn’t care less.”  
Jesse scowls and pulls the orb closer to his chest. He knows there’s truth in it. It’s never his intention to fight and hurt Genji, yet they just don’t _…fit_.  
It’s not even hate. They just rub each other the wrong way, in every way, in everything. 

“I’m sure you two can come to some sort of compromise,” Angela tries, inspecting Genji’s visor. 

“If his brain were to catch up to his mouth for once, then perhaps,” Genji says, not even looking at Jesse, and there it is, his tone is so cool and so scathing at the same time without even trying and _it’s infuriating_ – 

“Y’know – !” 

“McCree!” Reyes barks and Jesse slumps back into his seat immediately, grumbling and holding his side. “And you too, Shimada.” Genji’s slightly victorious posture slumps a little. 

“Whatever problem you guys have with each other, whatever shit storm you’ve managed to conjure up between you two,” the Blackwatch Commander points at them, giving them a hard stare in turn, “Fix it.” 

The ‘or else’ is silent, but both of them know it’s there. ‘Young and dumb’ were only a viable excuse so many times, and even Jesse knows it’s stupid to get so riled up over something so trivial.  

“Alright, Jesse.” Angela softly ushers him out, appointing a medical bot to accompany him to his room and stay by his side. She gives him a look that’s supposed to be admonishing, but it’s too forgiving to have that effect. He holds his hand out for his hat, and she pauses before she gives it back. “I know it can be hard to get on, but it doesn’t have to end up like this. People can be polar opposites and still learn to...” she flails her hands, “...cooperate. So please, Jesse. At least try.” 

“I _am_ tryin’, tell that to the ninja.” Even Jesse hates how sulky he sounds, and he sighs as Angela stares at him. “Aight, aight.” 

She finally smiles and plops the hat on his head. He briefly meets Genji’s stare as she turns to close the door, and he tsks as he turns away. 

“ **Please be careful on your journey, Agent McCree** ,” The med bot chirps, “ **It is advised you walk slowly**.” 

“See, you n’ me now, we get along just fine,” Jesse says as he pulls out a cigarillo. 

“ **Smoking is prohibited indoors. Doctor Ziegler has requested that you be accompanied straight to your resting quarters. Deviation to [Designated Smoking Areas] is prohibited.”**

Jesse resists the urge to punt the machine into the wall.

* * *

 

There must be more than ten gang members in this warehouse, more popping from behind boxes like mice scrambling from the woodwork, and Jesse’s only got seven bullets left. Now, Jesse’s never been a mathematician, not by a long shot, but it doesn’t take a genius to work out that those numbers don’t match up. They were out of their depth by a long shot, considering the mission only estimated five enemy operatives. Backup was still a while out, so it was just him and – 

“Biting into what you cannot swallow again, cowboy.” Genji drops down beside him, and it would have been soundless if he hadn’t landed _on_ someone. Jesse wants to roll his eyes into the back of his skull. He still doesn’t see how putting them on a mission together is supposed to help at all. 

“S’that really all you can say, after I had to get my ass kicked halfway to hell –” He blinks as he starts to climb the stairs. “Hold on, y’mean ‘biting off more than you can chew’, right?” Jesse emphasises the word ‘chew’ as he elbows someone off the railing. High ground would get him the advantage he needed, and since he ain’t a mechanically enhanced human being, he’s gonna have to get there the old-fashioned way: knocking out whoever’s in the way. 

Genji stays on the warehouse floor and casually deflects an onslaught of bullets, finding his opportunity to dash through a throng of five or six people, pausing briefly to tilt his head at Jesse as they fall behind him. 

“English idioms are strange.” He frowns, and Jesse shoots the guy about to swing his machete down on Genji’s shoulder. The cyborg doesn’t even flinch.  
They both look up as the doors to the warehouse swing open and more shouting fills the dusty space. He reloads. 

“Y’sure you ain’t the one that’s strange?” Jesse asks as he snaps Peacemaker shut. 

“Are you suggesting that I am strange because I am only half human?” Jesse can practically see the raised eyebrow from here – and he can certainly see the fresh, new batch of gangsters. Big guns, too. 

“Don’t be puttin’ words into my mouth!” Jesse bites back, and Genji glances upwards. For a moment, Jesse is almost sure that the cyborg is smiling as his fingers curl around the hilt of the katana on his back. Something unspoken zaps through the air and Jesse blinks, letting his gun hand drop to his side. Then he scoffs too. “You ‘n I both know you bein’ strange has got nothin’ to do with that.” 

Jesse’s not sure if the cyborg hears it, but his eyes light up when he pulls out his katana, so brilliantly green and electric and _is that a goddamn dragon?_

As if Genji’s flipped a switch, Jesse’s whole world goes still and it feels like can see the exact path the emerald blade takes, so intricate and precise it’s almost like he’s twirling a ribbon. His heartbeat is so slow it feels like its stopped, and as he tracks Genji, his eyes pick out the exact points of weakness in the cyborg’s dance, locking onto the targets standing in the prime areas – it’s disgustingly easy, and his six shots are the last to be heard in the warehouse. 

Genji shakes off his katana, even though there’s no blood. From the distinct smell of burning flesh, it seems like Genji’s blade cauterises as it goes, most likely to reduce mess. Jesse surveys the pile of bodies and whistles. 

“Well, would ya look at that.” 

“Hm,” Genji hums and sheaths his sword, clicking it into place with a fluorescent, green spark. He glances around as if confirming something, then looks up. “Twenty to eighteen.” 

“Pardon?” Jesse raises an eyebrow, and then they both shoot up as he gets it. “Oh fer the love of – you’re incorrigible! Plain n’ simple, downright incorrigible!” 

“If that is another word for ‘winner’, then you would right.”

* * *

 

The warehouse incident becomes notorious on Overwatch grounds. As it turns out, their ‘small’ mission had wiped out a faction of the biggest gang in South America, something the Overwatch team had been trying to do using intel for months. And the two of them had clonked it out in less than an hour. After Reyes reviews the warehouse security cams, he turns to Jesse with a smirk on his lips and another file in hand.  
“Don’t do it,” Jesse groans.  
Reyes does it.

* * *

  
The two of them tear through operations like paper. Even if they were at each other’s throats, as soon as it came to a fight, they dropped into rhythm like they’d known each other for years. Genji would burn through enemies, and anyone looking to take a cheap shot would meet a very precise bullet.  Jesse can pinpoint at least four separate instances where a shuriken has quietly taken down an unseen enemy from behind. If Jesse’s reckless style was a scribble of lines, Genji’s own chaotic lines would fill in all his spaces perfectly.

* * *

Jesse gets cocky. It’s hard not to, commendations pouring in from every direction, and a track record that was shaping up to look like one of the best in Blackwatch. Genji seems unaffected by it either way, and simply does as he’s instructed.  
He’s good, Jesse begrudgingly admits. Probably one of the best.

* * *

Genji takes a hit for Jesse right as they’re finishing up a mission, and it ends up blasting one of his legs clean off. The other is half destroyed. They follow protocol and make it to the getaway airship safely, and Jesse feels it like a billion bricks on his back. The airship is silent and Jesse sits across from Genji with his head in his hands.  
It’s Genji who breaks the quiet first. 

“My legs are replaceable.” He shrugs as Jesse looks up. “You are not.”

* * *

“You can go in, you know?” Angela appears beside Jesse and he almost jumps out of his skin. He fiddles with his hat and clears his throat. 

“I was just – walkin’ past, thought I’d just check...” Jesse trails off as Angela beams at him.

“Did you know even polar opposites are related in some way?” Her smile never wavers as she holds eye contact and opens the door. “Genji, you have a guest!” 

“Tell him I know he’s been standing there for twenty minutes.” 

* * *

The first mission they fail is the easiest one they receive. A simple intel sweep of a tech company reveals an encrypted file they can’t decipher with technology they have on hand. That is all fine and good, all they had to do was download it to Genji’s built in hard drive - 

“ _Ain’t that just the handiest thing?”_

_“If you did not still live in the Dark Ages, you would have something like this.”_

\- and then bring it back to Overwatch grounds for them to deal with. All fine and good, until Genji tries to cut him in half.  

“Hey, what...?!” Jesse begins but is cut off as Genji chases with alarming speed, bringing his katana down again. It cuts through the metal of the facility like butter. The ninja’s face is completely blank, and Jesse’s heart sinks. He throws down a flashbang and sprints away, unsure of how much time it would give him against someone like Genji, calling into base as he tries to put as much space between them as possible. He has a feeling that hiding is pointless. 

“McCree for Dr. Ziegler,” He huffs into his com device, looking back just in time to roll out of the way as Genji lunges at him. 

“McCree? What’s wrong?” Angela’s tone is worried, rightly so. When you page the doctor on a mission, someone’s usually in trouble. 

“Doc, is there – Jesus Christ! – s’there a way to stop Genji?” Jesse yells, sweating as he focuses on dodging the cyborg’s slices. He credits still being alive to his familiarity with the way Genji fights, because there’s no one who knows how the ninja moves better than Jesse. 

_“What do you mean, ‘stop’? McCree, what’s going on?”_

“I think – I think Genji’s got a virus or somethin’, and he’s tryna kill me so you gotta be real quick on this one, doc!” 

“ _Helvete_ , _a virus?”_

“Angie!” 

_“The wires, take out the wires at his neck! It facilitates movement for his entire body!”  
_

Jesse doesn’t spare another moment, but he knows it’s gonna be a risky move. Genji excels in close quarters combat, far more than Jesse, and god he hates to admit it, but bullets aren’t gonna work here. Genji’s fast and he’s going for the kill, so how the heck is Jesse gonna get close enough to get those wires? 

There’s no chance of being able to get behind him, he’s barely scraping past the blade as it is. He draws Peacemaker and throws his last flashbang, and even though Genji dodges back, it gets the distance Jesse needs to open fire. When he fires at the wires, Genji deflects them with ease. Jesse feels one sting past his cheek. 

Without hesitating, he fires low, piercing the armour at the weak knee joints. The ninja always has trouble fending against low projectiles. Genji staggers and falls to one knee, and Jesse lunges forward, ducking beneath a one-handed swing to come up right in front of Genji. Jesse grabs whatever wires he can reach around Genji’s neck, a victorious smile lighting up his face as he yanks - but his arm doesn’t listen. 

His fingers fall from the wires, and the rest of his forearm follows. There is a lot of blood.  
Not the katana, then.  
Time goes still, just like the first time he saw Genji draw his katana, and he finds it surprisingly easy to fall into the usual rhythm, regardless of the situation. 

“…McCree?” Genji’s weapons falls from his hand and he blinks as bits of his body fall limp. Jesse breathes a sigh of relief and falls back, wiggling the fingers in his right hand. 

“Thank God we got two o’ these!” Jesse grins, and passes out.

* * *

“You should try get some sleep, Genji.” Angela pats him on the shoulder as she walks past his resting place on the window sill. Genji nods, but they both know he will not be leaving his post for some time. Jesse’s heart rate beeps steadily in the background, and Angela does a routine check on his numbers, rewraps his bandage. Genji forces himself to watch. 

“Jesse’s an idiot,” Angela says, brushing some stray brown curls from his forehead. He agrees with a slight motion of his head. “Hot headed and dramatic. Loud and a little bit obnoxious.”  
Genji raises an eyebrow. _A little?_  
Angela chuckles. 

“But, he is also warm, and kind. Charismatic, and…” she trails off, “He’s…” 

“Like the sun,” Genji murmurs without thinking. Angela blinks and looks up. A small smile lights up her blue eyes. 

“How poetic of you, Genji.” 

Genji is a little embarrassed. 

“You’re right,” She nods and turns to him, “And then you must be the moon.”  
Genji is a lot embarrassed. He shrugs to hide it, and Angela chuckles again. 

“It’s hard to live without the sun, isn’t it?” 

“…I will repay him.” Genji looks at the stump at Jesse’s elbow. “Even if it takes my entire life.” 

“Aw, you didn’t hafta cut my arm off t’ find an excuse to spend yer life with me,” Jesse mumbles, eyes still half open as he groggily tries to sit up. Angela stifles a giggle and covers her mouth with a hand. 

“He’s on a lot of pain medication,” she whispers. 

“’ _A little_ obnoxious,’” Genji mutters. 

“I _know_ you like me, Shimada, s’much as you try pretend you don’t,” Jesse drawls, flailing his right arm. “You think I don’t know who’s leavin’ ice packs out after trainin’? Or them blankets when -”

“Doctor, I would suggest you give him some more medication before I knock him out myself,” Genji’s voice is strained.

“Well, I –” 

They both look over as Jesse snores, and Genji lets out an exhausted sigh.  

* * *

When everything in Overwatch goes to shit, Jesse chooses a vagabond lifestyle. He doesn’t try to search for Genji, even though he wants to. He has a feeling that he’ll have better luck finding the cyborg when he’s not trying.  
When his arm aches, he worries.

* * *

He’s just finished stopping a robbery in Hanamura, waiting for the local police to thin out in an alley when a figure drops down in front of him, silent as ever. His cigarillo glows a faint green. 

“As stylish as ever,” Genji comments, tossing something at Jesse. It clinks against his metallic hand, and he looks at his palm to see a broken spur. Must’ve come off in the crossfire. He nods in thanks. 

“’Til the day I die, darlin’.” Jesse puts out his smoke and stands up off the crate he’s sitting on, taking off his hat to dust it off, even though there’s nothing really on it. He sighs and his arms drop to his sides. Genji tilts his head. Jesse knows he’s smiling. 

“There is little I enjoy more on this planet than seeing you flustered, Jesse McCree.” Genji pushes off the wall, and Jesse blinks as a green light washes over his face. 

“Aw, shut yer trap, Genji.” Jesse rolls his eyes. “Did ya show up after all this time just to poke fun at an old man?”  
Genji takes another step forward and brings his hands to his visor, pulling it away with a click and a hiss of steam. Jesse has to force himself not to make a sound when he finally sees Genji’s face, and he realises he’s been holding his breath, all these years. 

His brown eyes are bright, brighter than they ever were when they were red. There are more wrinkles, lines his smile has etched onto scarred skin, and Jesse can feel that there is no longer a crushing weight on those slender shoulders. 

“No,” Genji chuckles and looks up at Jesse with the prettiest smile he’s ever seen in the entire world, “I just felt like some sunshine.” 

Jesse’s not really sure what that means – had the ninja been living somewhere cold these past few years? – but he finds he doesn’t care about it that much when Genji places a hand on his serape and pulls him down for a kiss worth more than all the stars in the sky.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! I really hope you liked it <3 by the by if anyone's interested in commissioning some writing, feel free to check my ao3 account for my style and if you like what you see let me know @ http://smilingchipmunk.tumblr.com/, and we can talk do's and don'ts and see if we can work something out <3 Prices are negotiable!


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